The Last Movie Title

by
Timothy Bottoms, Ben Johnson and Sam Bottoms in THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

This will sound random – because it IS random. I realized that there have been a wide range of movies with “Last” in the title, and was surprised to learn that, since 2010, I had written about SEVENTEEN of them myself. What really struck me was how disproportionately good these “last” movies have been. Among the very best in their genres:

  • The Last Picture Show – among the most evocative coming of age dramas.
  • The Last of the Mohicans – on anybody’s short list of great adventure movies.
  • The Last Waltz – one of the top four concert films of all-time.
  • The Last Emperor – an epic that won Best Picture and nine total Oscars.

And then there’s The Last Detail (Jack Nicholson at the height pf his powers), The Last Samurai (Tom Cruise), The Last Movie Star (Burt Reynolds’ poignant farewell), The Last King of Scotland (Forest Whitaker won an Oscar), The Last Vermeer, Last Action Hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger), Suddenly Last Summer, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Last Days (with Michael Pitt’s haunting performance as the doomed Kurt Cobain). And Jeff Bridges followed The Last Picture Show with The Last Unicorn and The Last American Hero.

Just recently:

Dr. John, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Rick Danko, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson in THE LAST WALTZ

Now, I must point out that there are “last” movies, even iconic ones, that I don’t like:

  • Last Tango in Paris: There’s no question that Marlon Brando’s performance as a man imploding in despair and self-loathing is one of most searing in cinema. But, ultimately, why should we care about him? After reading Maria Schneider’s account of the shoot, where Brando and director Bernardo Bertolucci contrived a situation where she felt raped, I just can’t bring myself to watch it.
  • Last Year at Marienbad: it’s part of the cinema canon, but it’s so pretentiously abstruse that I’ve hated it since my college film class; four decades later, I watched it again to see whether I had missed something about it and I came to the same conclusion.
  • The Last Tycoon: This film had lots going for it – an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel directed by Eli Kazan, starring Robert De Niro and with a cast including Robert Mitchum, Jack Nicholson, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell, Dana Andrews, Ray Milland, Peter Strauss, Donald Pleasance, Angelica Huston, John Carradine, Jeff Corey and Seymour Cassell. Unfortunately, the filmmakers bet big on Ingrid Boulting as an ingenue who would obsess De Niro’s studio exec, and she just wasn’t leading lady material. Boulting, a South African model, went on to make only two more forgettable features. I just rewatched The Last Tycoon, and it really drags,

But some of the “last” movies are grievously overlooked. So, over the next two weeks, I’ll be featuring four of the most underrated “last” movies, including, notably, The Last Movie itself.

Jonathan Majors and Jimmie Fails in THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO.
Photo: Peter Prato/A24